Best Homemade Window Cleaner (Streak-Free Glass Cleaner)
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This No Streak Homemade Window Cleaner (known on the internet as Alvin Corn) is super easy to make, is much safer than a lot of the store-bought options, and leaves your windows and mirrors streak-free.
Plus it costs almost nothing to make, so it's easy on the budget too.
I personally think that it is so important to get Home Care and Personal Care Products that are toxin-free so that we, our families, and our world can be a lot more healthy.
Plus, you can save a TON of money by making these things yourself.
And it doesn't have to take a TON of time.
Benefits of Making Your Own Homemade Glass Cleaner:
1. Reduce Toxins In Your Home
Do you really want these things in your home?
propylene glycol
2 Hexoxyethanol
Ammonium Hydroxide
Mirapol Surf S-210
Viden EGM
Sodium C14-17 Sec-Alkyl Sulfonat
Fragrance Palette (The term fragrance can hide artificial fragrances are not healthy)
Liquitint Sky Blue Dye
Ick.
Yes, those are the ingredients in one of the more popular glass cleaners on the market.
Even if those chemicals don't make you feel bad, there's a lot of evidence that they aren't healthy, so it's a good idea to do what you can to remove toxins from your environment as much as possible.
2. Save Money
You can make your own cleaner for way less money than you'd spend on a commercial cleaner. Even if it's not cheaper, I'd still prefer to make my own for the other benefits.
3. Clean Up the Environment
Do you really want to add these toxins to our already toxically overloaded environment? I am convinced that one of the main problems regarding the onslaught of autism, auto-immune disorders, and cancer is the prevalence of toxins in our world. Every time you can use a toxin-free product over a toxin-laden one, you help the environment.
I used to use just plain vinegar to clean our mirrors and glass. Truth be told, we didn't really clean our windows often. Just didn't really think about it.
We'd put some plain vinegar on a piece of newspaper and wipe it all over the mirror.
It worked OK, but it did leave some streaks that were a little hard to get off.
This cleaner, however, is great. I found it on a number of sites all over the internet (not sure who created it, but it's called Alvin Corn) and I must say, it's a real winner.
This cleaner does contain isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which some people may wish to avoid, but you can use vodka instead. It'll just cost more that way.
What's the Purpose of the Cornstarch?
One of the things you'll notice in this formula is that it has cornstarch in it.
Wondering what it's doing in there? Me too…
Here's what one reader shared with me:
On a microscopic level, glass is not perfectly smooth. When you spray water on it, the water molecules get caught in the pits on the glass surface. Water also clings to itself through hydrogen bonding – the hydrogen atoms from two molecules cling together. Water stuck in the glass + water stuck to more water = streaking. Cornstarch (or dish soap or oil-even a couple drops of essential oil) disrupts the hydrogen bonding, thus preventing streaks!
Cool beans! A DIY house cleaning recipe and science lesson in one!
How Much Can You Save?
A ton.
Vinegar: costs about $.59 for 32 ounces at Aldi. So even if we double the price, let's say it costs $.04
Rubbing Alcohol: Based on current Rite Aid pricing – $.25 for 1/4 cup
Cornstarch: A local Midwest grocery chain has it for $1.39 right now. If the tablespoon per pound info I got is correct, then the cost for 1 tablespoon is about $.04.
Water: I am just going to call this $0.00. The current approximate cost per gallon in my city is $.002 per gallon :-).
So – it costs a total of $.33 to make 2 1/2 cups of Glass Cleaner.
How To Use
- Windows
- Mirrors
- Glass Appliances
- Stainless Steel
- Chrome
- Aluminum
- Ceramic
- Plastic
- Do NOT use this on marble or coated eyeglasses, however!
Recipe Notes
- Shake: The spray needs to be shaken well each time you use it since the cornstarch might settle to the bottom or clog up your spray nozzle otherwise.
- Corn Alternatives: Though you're not eating this (please don't), if you need to avoid corn, other starches like tapioca or arrowroot should work as well.
- Cloth Options: You can use microfiber cloths or rags to wipe your surfaces clean. I prefer these options or newspaper to paper towels since paper towels leave lint and are more wasteful.
(Note – microfiber is plastic so I'm not really a fan, though it does tend to clean pretty well. A helpful reader commented that rags work pretty well as long as you don't use fabric softener on them (which, by the way, typically has lots of toxins in it like artificial fragrance, so here's another reason not to use it!) - Label Recommendation: As you make more and more non-toxic home cleaners you will know what is what. This handy dandy Chalkboard Contact Paper is great for label-making.
- Color It: Add natural food coloring to the bottle so kids will know it's not water. Beet juice (from canned beets) is one inexpensive natural color or you could drop a bit of powdered beet juice in as well but just a bit so it doesn't cause clogging.
- Prevent Streaking: Some readers have had streaking issues. This may be from impure essential oils or hard water. If you have streaking issues, please share in the comments what brand of essential oils you used and if you have hard water. I recommend only using pure essential oils even for house cleaning because even though it's “just” for cleaning, you still are breathing in oils (and whatever “else” might be in the oils. Another option is to leave out the cornstarch and see how that works.
- Use Two Cloths: To avoid streaking, use two cloths: one to wash and one dry cloth for drying.
- Eyeglass Warning: You can use this Homemade Glass Cleaner on your eyeglasses, but only if they are plain glass. If they are coated, avoid using this since alcohol will cause crazing (small surface cracks) in polycarbonate plastic. It can also cause the lens coating to deteriorate, resulting in less durable glasses that are easily scratched.
- Avoid Marble: Do not use this cleaner on marble as it might cause damage.
- The key to making this mixture perfect is to be sure the water is warm enough to dissolve the cornstarch, but not boiling or super hot. Also, don’t add the cornstarch to the water, add the water to the cornstarch in the bottle. If you don’t do that you’ll end up with film over your glass.
After “perfecting” Alvin Corn, I added 2 extra tablespoons of alcohol (totaling 1/4 cup alcohol) to make Alvin Corn dry quicker (for less streaking) and make it easier for it to pick up gunk.
Homemade Window Cleaner
Ingredients
- 1/8 cup white vinegar (apple cider vinegar will work as well)
- 1/4 cup isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (vodka is a safer choice)
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (reduces streaking)
- 1 cup water
- 4-5 drops essential oil of choice (optional. Lemon, orange, or another citrus would be my choice here, but lavender or others would be nice as well.
- A good glass spray bottle
or quality BPA-free plastic spray bottle.
Instructions
- Boil the water. Let it cool a little bit.
- Add the cornstarch to the bottle. Then add the water to the bottle. Shake well to dissolve.
- Add the rubbing alcohol and vinegar. Shake again to dissolve.
- Shake well before each use to prevent the cornstarch from clogging the nozzle.
- Spray onto glass surface and wipe clean.
Notes
- Shake: The spray needs to be shaken well each time you use it since the cornstarch might settle to the bottom or clog up your spray nozzle otherwise.
- Corn Alternatives: Other starches like tapioca or arrowroot should work as well.
- Best Cloth to Use: You can use microfiber cloths or rags to wipe your surfaces clean. I prefer these options or newspaper to paper towels since paper towels leave lint and are more wasteful. (Note – microfiber is plastic so I'm not really a complete fan, though it does tend to clean pretty well. A helpful reader commented that rags work pretty well as long as you don't use fabric softener on them (which, by the way, typically has lots of toxins in it like artificial fragrance, so here's another reason not to use it!)
- Label your bottle: So as you make more and more non-toxic home cleaners you will know what is what :-). This handy dandy Chalkboard Contact Paper is great for label making.
- Color It: Add natural food coloring to the bottle so kids will know it's not water. Beet juice (from canned beets) is one inexpensive natural color or you could drop a bit of powdered beet juice in as well.
- Prevent Streaking: Some readers have had streaking issues. It's possible this is from impure essential oils or hard water. If you have streaking issues, please do share in the comments what brand of essential oils you used and if you have hard water. I recommend only using pure essential oils even for house cleaning because even though it's “just” for cleaning, you still are breathing in oils (and whatever “else” might be in the oils. Another option is to leave out the cornstarch and see how that works.
- Use Two Cloths To avoid streaking, use two cloths–one to wash and one very dry cloth to dry.
- Eyeglass Warning: You can use this Homemade Glass Cleaner on your eyeglasses, but only if they are plain glass. If they are coated, avoid using this since alcohol will cause crazing (small surface cracks) in polycarbonate plastic. It can also cause the lens coating to deteriorate, resulting in less durable glasses that are easily scratched.
- Avoid Marble: Do not use this cleaner on marble as it might damage it.
More DIY Healthy Home Recipes
Are you an avid frugal DIYer like me? Here are some more ideas of simple things you can make for your home to reduce your exposure to toxins and save money while you're at it!
Homemade Natural Cleaning Products
Natural Dishwasher Rinse Aid
Homemade Foaming Soap
DIY Scrubbing Cleaner (like Soft Scrub)
Best DIY Fruit Fly Trap
Easiest DIY Weed Killer
Homemade Cleaning Paste
Homemade Laundry Detergent
The images in this post were updated in Jan 2020. For reference, here's one of the original images.
What do you use to clean your mirrors and windows?
I made your window cleaning recipe and it is awesome. I have two sliding doors downstairs and started cleaning them very late afternoon, early evening so it was dark when I finished. The next morning, I couldn’t believe how great they looked, as if there was no window there. I went and bought two spray bottles so I could have it on hand always, one for downstairs and one for upstairs. Thanks so much for sharing. Best window cleaner ever
So glad to hear it!!! Just be careful to not make so much that it spoils. Hope to see you around again!
Propylene glycol is a “generally recognized as safe” food additive. Its toxicity profile is as much as TEN TIMES LESS than the toxicity profile of isopropyl alcohol (which probably would sound more toxic to you if I used the proper chemical name of 2-propanol). Orange and lemon fragrances, sweetly smiled upon because they are “all natural”, are based on D-limonene, a terpene with a fairly high irritation potential. Lavender only sounds innocuous because you call it lavender. Should we investigate all the different chemical components of lavender, look up their toxicity profiles, and then compare them to the “toxic” chemicals present in a modern window cleaner? I suspect you would not want to endure such an analysis. Here’s the message: The people who make Windex are not poisoning you just because you don’t recognize the ingredients they use and are unable, and possibly unwilling, to learn to how to pronounce them.
Hello Dave,
First of all, thanks for commenting. However, I don’t appreciate the condescending nature of your comment. I was pre med at top university in the country and was in the top 2% of that university as well so I’m not just a know nothing babbling here. I can be wrong about things, and of course am human, but I am not stupid.
I assure you that I can pronounce most (if not all) of the ingredients on labels, including propylene glycol and 2 propanol and I am aware that there are different terms for ingredients, including the components of essential oils that you cited. As for the toxicity profiles of the components of lavender, I am not concerned about natural components of an essential oil and neither is EWG, if you are familiar with them. They in fact are redoing how they evaluate personal care products because of this situation. They have rated, until now, such products differently due to them having those essential oils in them, but they are re evaluating their policies to better assess the impact on the environment and on humans since those are, of course, the 2 concerns that we should have when evaluating what we use on ourselves and in our homes.
In any case, as for your claim that propylene glycol is 10 ten times than that of isopropyl alcohol, perhaps you should take that up with EWG and not with me. According to them, the rating of PG is https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/705315/PROPYLENE_GLYCOL/ is worse than that of isopropyl alcohol. https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/703198/ISOPROPYL_ALCOHOL/ I would like to know what toxicity profile you are looking at. Perhaps the issue is that you are talking about ingesting it vs using it as a house cleaner? Those are, of course, different applications.
Thanks again for commenting and I hope you get this response. I looked up your email address and it didn’t come up so perhaps you left a fraudulent one and just meant to leave a nasty comment to scare other readers away.
Vinegar and distilled water. If a streak appears, just squirt it again and rub it clean. No need for other additions. I am for clean, simple, inexpensive, not toxic, cleaning supplies. I use nothing but vinegar, baking soda, Dr. Bronners Sal Suds and Castile soap, and Young Living Thieves cleanser to clean everything in my home including me. Have for years. I don’t understand why so many want to make it complicated.
Hi there. Thanks for the comment. I loved the glass cleaner so I wanted to share it. That’s all. Hope to see you around again.
Just made this. It’s the best DIY window cleaner I’ve ever made. Who would have thought….cornstarch? But it works beautifully. Thanks!
Just curious…..does anybody use this for their stainless steel appliances?
Great to hear!!! I don’t think it would be a problem on stainless at all. If you do try it please do let us know. Vinegar and ammonia are fine on stainless so I think it should be fine.
No. Wrong chemicals. There is a microfiber cloth which is made for stainless steel. It can be used dry or dampened with plain water. It is wonderful and chemical free and can be laundered and used again and again. 😉
What is the purpose of the cornstarch?
Hi there. This is in the post (from a comment):
Hope that helps.
OMG I was just going to ask that! Ive seen many a natural cleaning recipes with either cornstarch or baking soda and couldnt understand why. I did have an issue though when I made an all purpose cleaner with bakibg soda, it clogged my spray bottle. Anyone have this issue or know how to corrct/prevent it?
I do this but with a squirt of dish detergent instead of cornstartch
What is the shelf-life of the window cleaner?
Sorry but I can’t make shelf life claims and it would depend on the purity of the water and if there is chlorine in it. I would recommend making a small batch and storing in the fridge if necessary. Adding an essential oil or other natural preservative would extend the life a bit. Hope it works well for you.
Hi,
I’m just wondering if a steel spray bottle will do good?
Thank you.
I think that should be fine.
Thank you for this recipe! I used it today (without the essential oils which I didn’t have) on the glass doors & windows of my lanai and it’s fabulous! I found that it worked best if I sprayed the window down, then wiped/rubbed it with a microfiber cloth to clean, then wiped it down with newspaper for a sparkly clean window. Easy peasy! I also had to make sure I rinsed out the microfiber cloth after cleaning every couple of windows or so or it would get streaky. Of course, now I have to go around and clean all the other windows. Sigh.
You are so welcome! Thanks for taking the time to comment :).
Can I substitute the essential oil to coconut oit or regular oil?
No, that wouldn’t work. Essential oils are for fragrance and therapeutic properties, whereas coconut oil and other oils are for other purposes.